116 passengers and crew perish in Air Algerie flight

by Kristen / Producer

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) -- Authorities say a flight operated by Air Algerie carrying 110 passengers and a crew of six has crashed over northern Mali. It was headed on a flight from Burkina Faso to Algiers. French President Francois Hollande says there are no survivors in the Air Algerie crash. Hollande announced on Friday that one black box has been found in the debris after French troops reached the site in the Gossi region near the border with Burkina Faso.

Speaking after a crisis meeting, he said no hypothesis is to be excluded in the investigation. About half of the passengers onboard were French. The official Algerian news agency said air navigation services lost track of the Swiftair plane 50 minutes after takeoff -- at 0155 GMT. Flight AH5017 had been missing for hours before news was made public.

Swiftair, the private Spanish airline, confirmed that 116 people were aboard."In keeping with procedures, Air Algerie has launched its emergency plan," the agency quoted the airline as saying.The flight path of Flight AH5017 from Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African nation of Burkina Faso, to Algiers was not immediately clear.Ougadougou is in a nearly straight line south of Algiers, passing over Mali where unrest continues in the north.